Arvind's Newsletter

1.Jio’s content push may stir OTT war reports the Mint

JioCinema, the video streaming platform owned by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd, is set to disrupt the Indian OTT market with its free local language programming, which sets it apart from rivals such as SonyLIV or ZEE5, who have similar content behind a paywall.

Moreover, JioCinema’s recent acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery content, which includes popular HBO Originals, and the addition of Universal Studios content poses a threat not only to Disney+ Hotstar, which has also lost the IPL rights but also positions the Viacom18-owned service alongside established players like Netflix and Amazon Prime, known for premium international programming.

Industry experts anticipate that the move could have implications on content production and talent acquisition that could become more expensive with the entry of a Reliance-backed deep-pocketed player, putting pressure on rivals to re-evaluate pricing and strategies.

2.Is PharmEasy the next Byju’s ?

The company’s valuation is going down from $4.6 billion to $500 million-$600 million according to The Economic Times. The report claims the online pharmacy may raise ₹2,400 crore (~$292 million) via a rights issue at a 90% discount to its stock price. This is a last-ditch attempt—barring a distress sale—by PharmEasy to repay a ₹2,280 crore ($285 million) loan from Goldman Sachs.

Meanwhile, Inc42 details the goings-on within PharmEasy, including its inability to fulfil the Term B loan covenant that required it to raise ₹1,000 crore to minimise monthly burn. The company was not only unable to raise funds, but also postponed its IPO to 2025. Thyrocare, acquired by PharmEasy in 2021, is also contending with order volumes, unhappy franchisees, layoffs, and PharmEasy parent API Holdings spending a bulk of monthly expenses to repay debt.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/pharmeasy-plans-rs-2400-crore-rights-issue-at-90-cut-in-share-price/articleshow/101510154.cms

3.Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has debuted its microblogging site Threads for anyone with an Instagram account. Meta is the latest entrant in a competition for dominance in the text-based social media market prompted by Elon Musk's shake-up of the market's longtime leader, Twitter, reports the Verge.

Threads' functionality resembles Twitter's, with the ability to write short posts, reply, like, and comment, though Meta claims Threads will also eventually be decentralised, allowing users to manage their data across other apps. Twitter boasts roughly 350 million monthly active users with an expected $3B in advertising revenue this year amid Musk's overhaul. Meta hopes its existing base of 3 billion users—and its robust data collection policy—will give Threads an edge in facilitating quick growth.

The news comes as the owners of the rival platforms, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter's Musk, feed rumours they'll engage in a cage fight—with Musk most recently suggesting the fight could take place in Rome's iconic Colosseum.

4.Record for hottest day ever recorded on Earth broken twice in a row, reports the New Scientist

We have just experienced the hottest day ever recorded on Earth – for the second day in a row. The average global air temperature recorded 2 metres above Earth’s surface hit 17.18°C (62.92°F) on 4 July, according to data from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and compiled by the University of Maine.

The new record outstrips the previous high of 17.01°C (62.62°F) set on 3 July. It makes 4 July the hottest day ever on Earth since records began.

5.India, an aspiring digital superpower, keeps shutting down the internet, reports the Economist.

On july 1st Elon Musk caused a stir by limiting the number of tweets visible to Twitter users in a single day. Perhaps he was inspired by the High Court of Karnataka, a big south-Indian state, which the day before had issued its own argument for restricting tweets. On June 30th the court ruled against Twitter in a case challenging the constitutionality of an Indian government demand, in 2022, to block content and several accounts critical of it. The court fined Twitter 5m rupees ($61,000) for failing to comply with that demand.

Twitter is just one bit of the internet India’s leaders wish to subdue. For the past five years India has led the world in internet shutdowns, according to Access Now, a New York-based advocacy group. Last year the second-highest number of internet disruptions, 22, was recorded in Ukraine, many of them related to the war there. In India, there were 84.

The majority of India’s internet shutdowns are imposed in restive areas such as Jammu & Kashmir, which accounted for more than half of last year’s stoppages. The small north-eastern state of Manipur, which has been riven with ethnic violence since early May, is entering its third straight month of internet blackout. The state government, run by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which also controls India’s central government, says the shutdown is necessary for “preventing any disturbances of peace and public order”—and hang the consequences for Manipuris. “Trying to halt misinformation by blacking out the entire information flow is a fool’s bargain,” warned the Times of India newspaper.

State governments run by other parties also block internet access. It is a “non-partisan issue”, says Tanmay Singh of the Internet Freedom Foundation, a digital-rights organisation. India’s parliament is nonetheless concerned. A report by a parliamentary committee called shutdowns “without any empirical study to prove the effectiveness…a matter of great concern”.

Thwarting insurgency and stifling government critics are not the only reasons for the blackouts. According to a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), an NGO, almost a third of the disruptions it counted between 2020 and 2022 were intended to prevent cheating in school exams or entry tests for government jobs.

The effects of the shutdowns will be increasingly damaging. India is growing ever more dependent on the internet for everyday life. Its digital utilities, or “digital public infrastructure”, provide the foundation for payments, identification and access to government services. Tens of millions use online education services. Middle-class Indians rely on apps for taxis, groceries and food delivery, all of which come to a halt without internet access. Welfare provision, too, relies on online authentication. As a woman from Rajasthan told HRW: “When the internet is shut down, I have no work, do not get paid, cannot withdraw any money from my account, and cannot even get food rations.” The “digital India” touted by the BJP government is a fine idea. But not if tetchy politicians keep switching it off.